A special court in Bengaluru has ordered a criminal case to be registered against Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar, on charges of defamation. Anjaneya Reddy, an environmental and social activist, moved the court alleging that the Minister uttered defamatory remarks against him in 2019. The petition also names Udayavani and Vijaya Karnataka, two popular Kannada dailies, as respondents. The court, on November 15, ordered that Sudhakar and the other accused be booked under sections 500 (punishment for defamation) and 501 (printing defamatory matter).
Sudhakar’s comments were “made with ill will,” the complaint said, adding that the newspapers published the news “without verifying the true facts with an intention to harm the reputation of the complainant and to cause permanent damage.” Ordering the registration of a criminal complaint, the court said, "On going through the complaint averments and the sworn statement of the complainant prima-facie, it goes to show that the complainant is defamed."
According to the complaint, the petitioner was among those protesting against an irrigation project that would bring effluents and treated sewage water to the lakes of Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts. The activist alleged that Sudhakar was a supporter of the project, and that he allegedly criticised Anjaneya Reddy in public. In 2019, Sudhakar took charge of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, which Anjaneya had challenged in court. In this backdrop, while speaking at a function in Chikkaballapur in June 2019, Sudhakar alleged that Anjaneya was earlier jailed for being involved in thievery and called him “anti-farmer.” Sudhakar’s statements were published in Udayavani and Vijaya Karnataka newspapers, the complaint said, as a result of which “the right thinking people of the society who are known to the complainant have thought ill of him at least for a short duration.”